Characteristics of Chinese Rural Network: Evidence from Villages in Central China

Abstract

The structure of rural societies in China has been studied by many researchers. Several characteristics are widely viewed as the unique features of Chinese rural societies. However, the quantitative measure of these characteristics are not found. We measure and examine the structure of Chinese rural communities from the perspective of social networks. We collected solid data of four important social relationships, namely, the kinship, the house neighbourhood, the land plot neighbourhood and the political relationship from ten natural villages (which constitute an administrative village) in central China. We calculate the network statistics and topological properties of the networks in the villages. Several characteristics are found. (1) Kinship and geographical relationship are the two major relationships that constitute the social networks in Chinese villages. (2) Chinese villages exhibit prominent small-world property. (3) The villages are generally quite decentralised. (4) Relatives, especially close relatives tend to also live geographically close to each other.

Keywords: Network Characteristics, Rural China, Kinship, Neighbourhood

JEL Classification: R20